Rolfe conducted a sobriety test on Brooks in the car park before the shooting
ATLANTA, June 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) —A police officer who fatally shot a fleeing black man in the back last week in Atlanta, Georgia, will be charged with murder and assault, officials say.
Garrett Rolfe, who has already been fired, faces 11 charges related to Rayshard Brooks’ death. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
The other officer at the scene, Devin Brosnan, will testify as a witness in the case, officials said.
The case comes amid US protests over police killings of black Americans.
Lawmakers in Washington are currently debating new police reform laws.
Officer Brosnan – who has already been placed on administrative leave – will be charged with assault for standing on Brooks’ shoulder as he lay dying.
Officials said this was the ninth time that an Atlanta police officer had been prosecuted for homicide.
They added that it is believed to be the first time a police officer would testify against a member of his own unit, though Brosnan’s lawyer denied his client would be a witness in the case.
Brooks failed a field sobriety test on June 12 after he was found asleep inside his car that was blocking a drive-through lane at a Wendy’s restaurant.
After pulling over his vehicle, the father-of-four appeared “slightly impaired, but his behaviour during this incident was almost jovial”, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said on Wednesday.
For over 40 minutes, video shows him complying with officers as he consented to a weapons search and provided them with his identification details.
However, as officers tried to handcuff him, he began struggling. The footage appears to show Brooks punched Rolfe, grabbed Brosnan’s stun gun and turned back while fleeing to fire it at Rolfe.
Brooks suffered two gunshots to the back that caused organ injuries and blood loss. One police bullet also hit a witness’ vehicle, nearly killing the driver, investigators say.
Prosecutors said Rolfe said: “I got him.” For over two minutes after Brooks was shot, neither officer provided medical attention as police are required to do, prosecutors said.
Instead, Rolfe kicked Brooks while he was on the ground, and Brosnan stood on Brooks’ shoulder immediately after the shooting, Howard added.
The district attorney said that eight videos from the scene showed Brooks “displayed no aggressive behaviour during the 41 minutes and 17 seconds” that he was questioned, and posed no physical risk to the officers in that time.
Brooks was 5.5m from the officers when he was shot twice in the back, investigators say.
“I believe that at the time of the shooting, Brooks did not represent a threat,” Howard said, noting that police rules prohibit firing a Taser at a fleeing suspect.
“So he certainly cannot fire a handgun at someone running away,” he said.
A lawyer for Rolfe blamed Brooks for his choice to “violently attack” the arresting officers “suddenly, without warning or provocation”.
“Brooks violently attacked two officers and disarmed one of them,” continued the statement issued by the LoRusso Law Firm.
“When Brooks turned and pointed an object at Officer Rolfe, any officer would have reasonably believed that he intended to disarm, disable, or seriously injure him.”
A lawyer for Brosnan disputed the district attorney’s claim that he will serve as a “state’s witness”, or that he has already admitted to standing on Brooks as he died.
“It’s absolutely untrue,” lawyer Don Samuel told the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper.
“The decision to initiate charges by the Fulton County DA’s office is irrational, unethical and obviously based on factors which should have nothing to do with the proper administration of justice,” he said in a statement. The newspaper added that the prosecutor faces re-election in August.
The shooting came amid nationwide unrest over the death in police custody of another unarmed black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The four officers involved in Floyd’s arrest have been sacked and are facing charges of second-degree murder, or aiding and abetting murder.
The Wendy’s restaurant where Brooks died was burned by arsonists after about 1,000 protesters turned up there in the hours after his death. His death also led to the resignation of Atlanta’s chief of police. — NNN-AGENCIES
